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NPR: You shouldn't have more than 100 grams of protein per day. It can cause kidney damage!

Also NPR: 115 grams is good.

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Why in the tags?

I made a loaf of bread so I'm going to make lentil soup to go with it. Last night I had sardine pasta which is:

One onion, caramelized;

One can of sardines, drained (dog gets the oil on his kibble), added pretty early to the caramelizing onions;

Two hot chilis, added whenever

One clove of garlic, minced with some thyme and rosemary, added next

One can of tomato paste, and cooked for ~5-10 minutes while you make the pasta

A big pile of chopped parsley to add when you're serving it.

It's really good.

if u see this, PLEASE put in the tags what you’re having for dinner tonight! i am curious! thank u!

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Actually yes.

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Honestly my big takeaway here is "44 calories?!"

I feel like today they'd pack at least 160 in there.

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I fucking hate carrot cake

I mean, who the fuck decided to put vegetables in cake? No, seriously. It’s an animosity that goes way back.

However, I just made the best carrot cake in the world. THE. BEST. CARROT CAKE. IN. THE. WORLD. How do I know this? Because I tasted it and it was FUCKING AWESOME and I HATE carrot cake. So you know this shit is pretty damn good.

Try it, and tell me it’s not fucking awesome.

4 eggs

¾ cup canola oil

½ cup applesauce

1 packed cup light brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (you know my feelings on the imitation bullshit)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots (not too finely grated- about like shredded cheddar)

1 (15 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine eggs, oil, applesauce, sugars, and vanilla in mixer and beat well- 2-3 minutes until well incorporated and sugars dissolved. If you want fluffier cake beat it some more now BEFORE you add the flour, otherwise your top will sink in and that shit will be nasty and chewy. In small bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add by thirds to wet ingredients mixing until just combined. Stir in by hand carrots & pineapple. Pour into greased pan. Makes two 9” rounds or one 9” x 13”. Let rest for a few minutes before putting in oven. Bake until the top is set when jiggled and the cake pulls away a bit from the sides of the pan. No, I don’t know how long that will take in your oven. At least 25 to 30 minutes. Maybe as long as 45. It will look pretty dark, but not burnt. Pull it out (that’s what she said!) And let it cool for like 10 minutes then flip it out of the pan onto a rack and allow to cool completely before icing or storing. I prefer the cream cheese icing on it.

12 oz cream cheese

½ cup butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

3 cups powdered sugar

Put the cream cheese and the butter in the mixer, turn it on high, and then WALK THE FUCK AWAY. Five minutes. Go pee. Smoke. Fuck someone. Whatever.

Alright, you’re back. Did you wash your hands? Go wash your hands. You disgust me.

Okay. Add everything else. Mix until light and creamy. Ice your cake, top with toasted pecans and then eat all your feelings. Or, you know, share it with someone or whatever.

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Curious about something here. Feel free to reblog.

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This is incredibly relevant to my personal interests.

hi i just created an excel sheet where i can pick a meal and have it autopopulate the ingredients i'll need as a shopping list

i have never felt so smart

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Not well but I made the chocolate pudding in Samin Nosrat's book and I had it for my midmorning snack and also a bit after lunch and even though I accidentally used the tin of cocoa powder that is half ovaltine* so it's kind of malted chocolate pudding.

* a certain child insisted that he loves Ovaltine so I bought a whole jar of it and it turns out he does not love Ovaltine. We managed to work through most of it but we mostly use cocoa powder for making hot chocolate and I've been cutting it into our hot chocolate to get rid of it because we do not throw food away round here so I figured "whatever, just dump it in." And then I went to make pudding.

How are we all fighting off the existential dread today? I've ordered loungewear and made banana bread and so far my brain is still aware of the horrifying state of the world.

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IT’S NOT AT ALL SOUP SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS, AND YET IT IS ALWAYS SOUP SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS

My viral soup post hasn’t gotten reblogged in a while and needed to be updated, and @redheadmystic asked me about it today, so here’s a brand-new master post of soups, including most of the ones that were on the list before, as well as some newer favorites. I’ve made many more soups than just this list over the past year, but these selections are my very tip-top, most enthusiastically-recommended picks.

Chef Michael Smith’s Thai Coconut (Red Curry) Soup with Chicken & Noodles 

Not A Curry’s Thai Coconut (Green Curry) Shrimp Noodle Soup with Tofu

Nigella Lawson’s Cold Cure Soup (onion, orange, lime, ginger, cinnamon, chicken: your house will smell like heaven)

BA’s Chicken Khao Soi (very rich; will stick to your ribs)

BA’s Tom Ka Gai (if you can find galangal, it makes this soup)

Ellie Krieger’s Savory Carrot Cashew Soup (healthy & vegetarian)

my recipe for Pasta e Fagioli

my recipe for Creamy Spring Onion, Pea, and Zucchini Soup (easiest imaginable prep)

Victoria Granof’s Pasta con Ceci (sometimes I like it thick, more like a pasta dish, and sometimes I add more water and loosen it up because I want it brothier, like a soup)

my adapted version of Caldo Xóchitl(-ish)

Smitten Kitchen’s 44-Clove Garlic Soup (don’t be afraid of the number; it’s surprisingly refined and understated)

Yvette Van Boven’s Daube Provençal (stew beef marinated in, then simmered with orange, olives, and a whole bottle of Côtes du Rhône)

BA’s Poached Cod with Tomato & Saffron (note: I double all the ingredients but the fish, and add olives and capers, to make this more like a stew than a poach)

America’s Test Kitchen’s brilliant Creamy Cauliflower Soup (nearly dairy free, but super creamy)

my own recipe for Vichyssoise, adapted from a 1962 recipe in Gourmet

Alison Roman’s Spicy Noodle Soup with Mushrooms & Herbs (vegan)

Sue Li’s Lemony Shrimp & Bean Stew

Colu Henry’s Roasted Tomato & White Bean Stew

Kay Chun’s Hot and Sour Dumpling Soup

Eric Kim’s Cornish Game Hen Soup with Garlic, Ginger, and Fried Shallots

With Spice’s Cabbage, Onion, and Farro Soup

Veselka’s Cabbage, Sauerkraut, and Pork Soup

Classic Billi Bi (an elegant, wine-y, old-school cream of mussels soup)

Julia Turshen’s Chicken Tortilla Soup with the Works (requires a huge pot and an entire afternoon. Worth it.)

Elaine Louie’s completely brilliant Miso French Onion Soup (vegan if you leave out the melted cheese at the end)

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Breakfast

This is probably more for my own reference than anything else but we hosted a Yom Kippur Break Fast last night and it was a pretty good menu:

* Two Vernal Tarts from Sourdough, but with twice the onions (carmelized) and no greens. And thyme because we didn't have tarragon.

* Four roasted acorn squash with paprika and honey and sage (Melissa Clark)

* Apple Cake (Joan Nathan) but with olive oil instead of canola.

* Tahini cookies.

* Green salad with a pretty basic lemon dijon vinegrette

* Rye crackers, herring, hummus (party trick: add some nice olive oil and a sprinkle of sumac to your hummus)

* Challah, fruit, wine, apple cider.

The cookies, if you're wondering:

200g good tahini

130ml maple syrup (I think Grade A would be better but Noah's loyal to Grade B)

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

225g almond meal

½ tsp rose water (optional)

Heat everything but the almond meal until it just starts to simmer. Add the almond meal, get it all mixed, refrigerate to cool.

Make balls and press them flat, garnish with pistachio and rose petals, bake at 325° for ~10 min.

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Sunday: We went out to a massive lunch and had a bit of green salad for dinner.

Monday: Sardine pasta, I think? If I haven't shared it here before it is based off of an Alison Roman recipe, and a slight misunderstanding. My cousin told me about this fantastic pasta that was just sardines and tomato paste and I didn't even notice until the onions were cooking that the recipe calls for 2oz of anchovies. What I had was 4 oz of Sardines and I just went for it. Carmelize an onion (or two), add a few cloves of garlic and a hot red pepper, a tin of sardines (drained) and a small can of tomato paste and just keep cooking it on low heat. I wind up adding some water to it so it can keep cooking. Serve it over pasta with a ton of parsley or purslane or a green salad on the side.

Tuesday: Tomato Tart which I still need a perfect recipe for. My Sourdough book has a whole wheat walnut crust that I like but I wanted a more custard-y filling.

Wednesday: Niçoise from a Melissa Clark recipe.

Thursday: Rice bowl with tofu, quick carrot pickle and miso tahini dressing.

Friday: ✨ dining out✨

Saturday: Enchiladas with black beans and summer squash.

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Cookbooks I Love

* Bowl (Lukas Volger) is great and we use it often.

* Vegetarian entrees that won't leave you hungry (Lukas Volger) is also great and we use it often.

* Super Natural Every Day (Heidi Swanson) is full of recipes that are now staples for us. We visited a friend recently who had another Heidi Swanson cookbook that was more narrative and did not look like it was full of recipes.

I love Smitten Kitchen and her blog is very reliable and often includes great and complete vegetarian meals. I recently got one of Deb's books from the library and it was great if you're not vegetarian but a little thin on the vegetarian recipes, at least for my needs (my need is straightforward weeknight dinners).

I am currently reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat which is quite good but more of a cooking book than a recipe book. A few recent library finds that I want to check out a second time or possibly buy:

* Dinner in French (Melissa Clark)

* Smitten Kitchen Every Day (Deb Perlman)

* Jerusalem and Plenty (Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi)

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Noted.

Yo it is too hot to cook in much of North America but this is a very good stovetop/salad dinner. I used whole wheat couscous with veggie broth instead of chicken broth, did cucumber and tomato and green onion, dill and parsley (I tripled the herbs because the recipe is from a British site but both kids said it was too much parsley), and used toasted walnuts instead of sliced almonds, and it was so dang good.

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Sunday: Vegetarian Laksa

Monday: Tacos, I think? Roasted sweet potato and tempeh with New Mexico chile powder and cinnamon because the kid isn’t into refried beans.

Tuesday: Court, so we had takeout. Invited the kid to choose but he wanted to vote so we wound up with a modified ranked choice system for the first round which resulted in Thai as the clear winner (1,1,3) but Burgers was everyone’s second choice the dog got a say. You hold your hands palm forward and call him over. if he sniffs your Right hand, that’s a vote for burgers. Left hand is a vote for Thai (maybe it was the other way round?) and the dog vote went to burgers. I got a Beyond Burger. I’m pretty averse to processed food and Beyond is very, very processed, but the alternatives was basically making my own dinner while they had burgers so I just went with it. 

Wednesday: Salmon with roasted potatoes and salad.

Thursday: Pizza with zucchini and salami (on half). 

Friday: Rice bowl (tofu, brown rice, sauteed greens, roasted sweet potato)

Saturday: Pizza beans.

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Lately

Sunday: Tacos (leftover home made refried beans with curtido, cheddar and avocado)

Monday:  Pizza from scratch. I need to start adding some salt to the sauce but basically I make dough in the morning, chop a ton of garlic and some oregano and add that to 2/3 of a can of tomato sauce. One was mushroom and red onion, one was smoked salmon and feta.

Tuesday: Stir fry. I kind of used a recipe because the new kid isn’t crazy about a lot of my sauces. So I heated some chili and garlic in oil, added shitake, then zuchhini and a bit of oyster sauce. Added the bok choy stems. A splash of mirin and soy sauce, a bit more oyster sauce. A small piece of salmon leftover from the other night. Should have added the tempeh earlier but it went in last because I decided it needed more protein. The tempeh was an after thought. Usually I’d do crispy tofu but we have no tofu and this week’s challenge is to get to Friday without going to the grocery store. 

Wednesday: Sardine Pasta. This is adapted from an Alison Roman recipe, which my cousin swears by and I got it into my head all wrong and when I went to make it I went with what was in my head rather than the recipe, which calls for far less fish (fewer fishes?). Basically, you caramelize an onion (she says six large shallots, but if I don’t have shallots a yellow onion is fine; maybe next time I’ll use two though) and add a 4oz can of sardines (or 2oz of anchovies), 5 thinly sliced cloves of garlic and some dried chiles and keep cooking. Add a can of tomato paste. If you want to be all Alison Roman about it you can add parsley, but this is kind of a cupboard scraper for me and I never randomly have parsley. I do usually have enough greens in the garden for a small salad. Note: I was planning this for tomorrow but actually we don’t have garlic either so a store run might happen after all.  Also: I actually re-read the real recipe while writing this and apparently you’re supposed to add 2 cups of pasta water to the sauce. I’ve never bothered, but maybe this time I’ll try that. Shake things up a little.

Thursday: i said I’d make risotto but we’ll see. We don’t have any arborio and I’m not totally feeling it. We might land on something more lentil-y instead.

Friday: Take out. Which is kind of a cheat but that does get us to the weekend without a grocery run, unless you count the Wednesday run but I think I can make the kid do that one. Assuming I can make Thursday happen.

The kid says he doesn’t like tomatoes, which is pretty limiting since you’ll notice two tomato based meals here. I have a mess of kale and beet greens with no plan for either.

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Need to evaluate

I just want to remind everyone how affordable buying food from indigenous tribes is. I live in a major city and I was able to purchase and ship (15) pounds of fish from back home to myself for cheaper than I could buy it from a grocery store here in the city. Yeah, shipping has its own environmental factors but I was able to support an indigenous owned business while also getting my groceries at a lesser cost. (Buying in bulk is always a good idea if you’re planning on having something shipped to you)

Some tribal owned grocers that ship:

Bow and Arrow (Ute Mountain)

Native Harvest (White Earth)

Red Lake Fishery (Red Lake)

Wozupi (Mdewakanton Dakota)

Ramona Farms (Gila River)

Tanka Bars (Oglala)

Indian Pueblo Store (Pueblos)

Twisted Cedar Wine (Cedar Paiutes)

Ute Bison (Ute)

Seka Hills Olive Oil and Vinegars (Yocha Dehe Wintun)

She Nah Nam Seafood (Nisqually)

Sakari Botanicals (Inupiaq)

Honor the Earth (?)

Nett Lake Wild Rice (Anishinaabe)

Passamaquoddy maple (Passamaquoddy)

BONUS: coffee :)

Yeego Coffee (Navajo)

Spirit Mountain Roasting (Yuma Quechan)

Birchbark Coffee (Anishinaabe)

Thunder Island Coffee (Shinnecock)